It’s a detailed account of X’s relationship with a woman he’s been charged with brutally assaulting.

Editor’s Note: Since this article’s publication, graphic new details about the domestic violence case against XXXTentacion have emerged from an official testimony by his ex-girlfriend. You can read them here via Pitchfork. Warning: they are extremely disturbing.

Whatever your opinion on Florida rapper XXXTentacion, there’s no denying that his new album 17 is a hit. It moved 87,000 copies in its first week, a surprising sum for a rapper that’s been intentionally ignored by many major media outlets. Although his first week sales will fall short of the 135,000 copies for Lil Uzi Vert’s Luv Is Rage 2, the story on Genius is the opposite: 17’s songs have earned 1,355,577 total pageviews compared to 741,349 for Luv Is Rage 2. Kendrick Lamar’s public cosign of 17 certainly didn’t hurt, but X has also built an impressively loyal fanbase over the past year despite—or perhaps because of—significant controversy.

The 19-year-old X (real name Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy) has faced a series of criminal charges since at least 2015. In December 2016, he was incarcerated for armed home invasion and aggravated battery stemming from a 2015 incident in Broward County. Last October, he was also arrested in Miami-Dade County on five felony charges including battery and aggravated assault of a pregnant victim, battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and tampering with or harassing a witness, victim, or informant. The woman X is accused of assaulting is his former girlfriend. He’s currently serving six years of probation on the Broward County charges, and is set to stand trial for his Miami-Dade charges in October.

While fans of “problematic” artists from Chris Brown to Kodak Black to R. Kelly have long insisted that they’re able to “separate the artist from the music,” X doesn’t shy away from his domestic abuse accusations. 17 doesn’t just have a shadow of violence over it, it’s the central theme of the album. X mentions the destructive nature of his relationship on almost every track. His tone varies from regretful to indignant, but it’s virtually impossible to separate the artist from his actions because they’re intrinsically woven into his work. Far from being a deterrent, X’s troubled persona—from his near-constant discussion of depression and suicide to his past as a delinquent teen to yes, even his domestic violence charges—seems to be what attracts people to him in the first place.

Fans embracing X despite these facts also seem willing to accept his version of events. X has yet to be sentenced and publicly maintains his innocence in the case. In late 2016, he told No Jumper that his ex was—among other things—lying about who assaulted her, sleeping with one of his friends, and exploiting her assault for profit. She also spoke out against him in a series of mostly deleted social media posts last year. This dramatic back-and-forth playing out in front of a legion of young fans has made everyone a detective, with message boards like Reddit, KTT, and Genius filled with “expert” takes on his innocence. Far from being ignorant of what X has been accused of, some of his biggest fans seem to clearly know the gruesome details of his case.

X isn’t shy about pushing this point of view, either. On “Carry On,” he explicitly denies the charges brought against him:

Trapped in a concept, falsely accusedWas used, and misledBitch, I’m hoping you fucking rest in peace

Where was I?When he was feeling on you with his hands?I’m under the assumption love is deadSeen the vivid pictures in my head

In all of these instances, X is able to conflate his struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts with his relationship. In his eyes, not only is he a victim of false allegations, but the relationship in question has been incredibly destructive to his mental health. He sells the entire album as a way to “cure, or at least numb your depression,” a goal that has clearly resonated with fans and makes for an admittedly compelling narrative. However, X’s lack of remorse and repeated insistence that his ex is to blame for his suffering often feels like a way to justify his treatment of her—a stomach-turning sentiment.

There are moments on the album where X’s darker nature is revealed. “Revenge” is a song that he dedicated to his deceased friend Jocelyn Flores but was written and recorded before her suicide. On the track, he seems to drop the pretense of his innocence and instead delivers a menacing threat to “act on my revenge.” He even compares his broken heart with broken bones, an alarming parallel for a man accused of domestic violence:

I’ve dug two graves for us, my dearCan’t pretend that I was perfect, leaving you in fearOh man, what a world, the things I hearIf I could act on my revenge, then, oh, would I?Some kill, some steal, some break your heartAnd you thought that I would let it go and let you walkWell, broken hearts, break bones, so break up fastAnd I don’t wanna let it go, so in my grave I’ll rot

His ex’s last name is used as the title of album-closer “Ayala (Outro).” Once again, X places the blame for his mental health problems squarely on her shoulders:

It’s moments like these that make the success of 17 so surprising. In an era where Millennials (and their younger counterparts Generation Z) are derided as the drivers of “PC culture,” they’ve embraced an album that more or less blames a victim of domestic violence for the alleged perpetrator’s depression and suicidal thoughts.

One potential reason for this is that many media outlets have decided to effectively ignore X’s rise to prominence. Several publications have been vocal about their refusal to cover him, billing it as a “moral stand” against domestic violence. In 2017, however, artists don’t need media gatekeepers to succeed, and fans have instead discovered his music directly from the source. In turn, they haven’t experienced it alongside objective context about its content, instead reliant on the word of super-fans on Twitter and hip-hop message boards that have appointed themselves investigators in X’s case. This is partly the result of an abdication of responsibility by music outlets, which have chosen to draw an arbitrary moral line in the sand rather than tackle the difficult questions that X’s popularity raises.

Still, the Genius data proves that fans are clearly reading his lyrics themselves. Perhaps they aren’t fully absorbing the implications of what he’s saying. Maybe—as disturbing as this would be—they agree with what he has to say and where he chooses to place blame for his actions. Or it could be that their emotional connection to the music is so strong that they’re willing to ignore its more sinister elements. Music is an emotional experience—not a logical one—and oftentimes feelings can trump facts. Either way, it’s clear that 17 has struck a nerve with today’s listeners. The moral quagmire of embracing an artist like XXXTentacion seems to be working as an asset for him rather than a liability.